Indiana Gold Prospecting

[66chevelle]

I have rented the "DRAPER CABIN" in M.M.S.F. for the Friday and Saturday of the outing{March 20th and 21st}. If your interested its a primitive cabin as the park site says its a ".. wooden-floored log cabin that takes visitors 100 years back in time to the days before electricity, vehicles and modern plumbing." Its not a "Holiday Inn"
...there is no running water,electricity, or modern plumbing... its a true to life "log cabin".
It has 2 rooms and sleeps up to 14 people... so if interested in stepping back in time and spending the outing weekend in the 130 year old cabin contact me... I forgot to mention the price if you want to stay the weekend... its FREE!!! This one is on me
Jeremy Kolaks {Assistant Property Manager M.M.S.F.} is going to let me into the cabin this Friday to take pictures of the inside and out. Here is the state site DNR: Morgan-Monroe State Forest
I will post photo's of the cabin this weekend for those who want to see it at Central_Indiana_GPAA : Gold Prospectors Association of America
We must stay within the 14 person limit {max # staying overnight} so
please contact me if your interested... 317-242-9921
For those not staying in the cabin we will be entering Deadmans Hollow from the East side at around daybreak to go gold panning March 21st... and having a meeting at the shelter house at 5 pm. to go over new rules from the N.R.C. for recreational prospecting in Indiana. Those spending the night will return to cabin at dusk... and repeat for Sunday! B.Y.O.B. {Bring.Your.Own.Beer!}

Central Indiana GPAA President,
Wayne A. Mercer

A group of guys I work with rent this cabin every year usually the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October. There is a outhouse about 100-150 yards or so away and a little bridge that goes over the stream (long walk at 3am when your drunk). The stream goes in front of the cabin and all the way down the side and out the back side. If It has water in it you can walk straight out the back door a little ways to the water fall. Its not huge but I thought it was pretty cool my first time there. The cabin is 2 rooms like he said with a fire place. There is a big fire pit outside in the back. We usually put about 7 or 8 tents back there and sleep there by the fire. It is a really nice place to get away for the weekend. Also if you leave the cabin and turn right you can go to cherry lake which is where we usually fish. Also draper is usually used as a hunting cabin so you can carry there.

 

[rylosplanet]

Any Money Involved?

Is there any money in gold prospecting? I'm sure there is with gold at $1K per ounce (from what I hear). I fur trap in the Fall & Winter, so there's some return on investment there. Do you make some pretty good money doing it though?

 

[Joe Williams]

Thanks for posting this!! My wife is always watching treasure hunting and gold panning shows on tv, and talking about how much fun she thinks it would be. I'm going to pass this on to her.

 

[FordMan08]

I have met "Tom Massie" "that guy on TV called the Buzzard" he is the son of the founder of the GPAA George Massie.

I thought George was called "Buzzard", not Tom.

 

[CAMOEDTJ]

so is there no meeting before you go out or only the meeting at 5pm at the shelter house afterwords?? or are we actually going out on the 22nd in the morning??

 

[Jed]

I will arrive at the cabin Friday March 20th hopefully by 10 a.m. I should have the keys from the office by then... I will leave the gate unlocked for people to come down the lane... be sure you park about half way down the hill... unless you have 4x4 and excellent reverse driving skills don't drive to the bottom of the hill... there is no place to turn around.
After getting the gear to the cabin {Camp stove, lanterns, firewood, etc...} I will likely head right outside the cabin and begin to take some sample test pans.
Saturday we will rally at the cabin at around 8-9am depending on everyone's mood we will head out to either that local valley or Deadmans Hollow. Then we meet at 5 pm in the shelter house just around the corner from the cabin.

 

[CAMOEDTJ]

ok rally at or around 8am or 9am at the cabin sat morning, what if i wanted to come to the meeting at 5pm sat...would i and my wife be able to purchase the things we need at this meeting at the shelter house and then return sunday when you guys go out again? we would not be able to spend the night sat night due to family circumstances.. but would like to return on sunday since it would be a short drive from our house..and if so what time do you think every one will be heading out on sunday? sorry to be a pain with all the questions, but i just wanted to try and assure me wifey has a good first time so hopefully she will want to do this again with me and we both have never done any thing like this before, it sounds really fun..

 

[Jed]

Yes, general prospecting supplies will be for sale at the meeting [as well as before and after]... around $20 bucks buys everything you need... a pan($14), a sucker bottle ($5) and a glass vial to put your gold in ($1)
You will be more than welcome to go out with us Sunday... it will likely be 8am-9am before we head out from the cabin to prospect. A good breakfast will be in order after 2 nights in the cabin... so plan on smelling the bacon cooking from half way down the hill
I think your wife will enjoy the trip. Its an isolated valley with a 130 year old log cabin... its an amazing place even without the gold prospecting.
There is room for a couple of RV's at the gate to the private lane for the cabin... but there are no facilities {gray water dump site etc...} so any RV should be self sufficient at least for the weekend.
If any of you have questions feel free to call me at 317-242-9921.

President Central Indiana Gold Prospectors Association of America,
Wayne A. Mercer

 

[HiRoller]

You guys are killin' me. I've been wanting to prospect for years now. I'm not sure if I can make this event but I will join and be in for future outings. Thanks for posting.

 

[Jed]

This outing will be the first one since the new Indiana State rules will be in effect. We will go over the new rules in detail at the meeting. The rules are very reasonable and provide a great balance of protection of endangered species etc... while protecting the right to prospect in Indiana it wasn't easy but well worth it in the end.

 

[Jed]

The Cabin has been filled to capacity... but there are room for 6-8 tents around a large fire ring just out the back door.
Are any of you ready to REALLY test your bug out bags? See how you make do for one weekend.

 

[Jed]

The question is a week from today do you want to take gold out of the earth with your own two hands?
I can show you where, I can even sell you the gold pan... but YOU must be the one to move the material.
Some will say "one day" others will say its "to Cold" this type of person always has an excuse...
A select few at the end of the day can honestly say "I got this Gold out of the earth with my own bare hands"...
What type of person are you?

 

[HiRoller]

Ok.........where's the gold ???? Anybody pan out ????? How was the trip ???????

 

[Jed]

Thank you to everyone who made our first spring outing a great success!
There were plenty of good friends, some great food, and a lot of fantastic gold!
The cabin crew was a riot staying up running a blue bowl to recover fine gold into the weee hours of the morning... it was certainly great memories... someone should tell me later about late Friday night... I think I had some bad water it made it a little blurry
The rest of the weekend was fantastic with some excellent gold recovered from Deadmans Hollow. We had about 25-30 prospectors per day with 50 or so at the meeting! Its almost time for the fair weather folks to come out

 

[Jed]

We raffled {3} 1 Gram gold bars, an 11.2 gram natural silver nugget, a vial of 25 Indiana Gold pickers, micron digital scales, a Frost folding knife, and a mini mag light.
$2 bought one chance to win, $5 bought 3. We only had one raffle and the first person had choice of items on down the line until all items were won... with 50 people there and 7 sure to win the odds were very good!
I already have a gold coin, a 5 ounce silver bar, and a couple of standing liberty silver coins for the next raffle.

 

[CAMOEDTJ]

me my wife bro inlaw and his hife went to this sunday morning. this was our first time dooing anything like this.. it was really fun and my wife and i plan on dooing this again, and we actually found some gold. thanks "WAYNE" FOR SHOWING US FIRST TIMERS THE ROPES i am planning on getting me some permits and trying agin in the near future now that we kinda sortof know what to look for.

 

[agentl074]

Cool!

 

[RickBinFW]

Sounds interesting.

When is the next meeting?

 

[RogerB]

and what was the value of the finds? Just curious, pretty interesting!

 

[CAMOEDTJ]

and what was the value of the finds? Just curious, pretty interesting!

i really couldnt tell you the value of the finds, im guessing not much at all but was really fun panning though.. i found this little bit in the bottle in about an hours worth of panning after a few tips and some help from WAYNE who was in charge of this weekends outing.. i will say this, i am deffinatley hooked